Tech visionary — Kate Vale on running Google, Spotify, and now a VC fund

Curveball

When Kate Vale was appointed Google Australia’s first employee, she didn’t have an office or a mobile phone. She found herself answering her home landline to do business!

From humble beginnings she used her HR background to quickly build a team, and grew Google Australia to record revenues and eventually to IPO.

Ever the digital pioneer since her days managing a dot com company before the crash, Kate Vale then headed up Spotify in Australia.

Eventually she moved to California, the epicentre of start-up and digital culture. She’s now running a venture capital fund called Aliavia that’s focussed on supporting female founders who are often overlooked for investment.

She takes you inside the famous Google hiring process and gives her take on what it takes to thrive while leading digital companies.

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This was episode was produced and edited by Liam Riordan with sound design by Krissy Miltiadou.

The executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

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